I like it if the main character has a side image, it's totaly better than a facless *insert gender here*
The thing I find stupid is that many VN writers work on describing their MC's personality and stuff like that, yet they refuse to show their face or give them any emotions (I'm looking at you, erouge games)

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HigurashiKira wrote:
The thing I find stupid is that many VN writers work on describing their MC's personality and stuff like that, yet they refuse to show their face or give them any emotions (I'm looking at you, erouge games)

assddfsasdfsa xDDD
A-anyway...
I prefer side image. Is nice to see MC expressions and reactions. Even more when it matches with your own face while playing haha.

I prefer side images. When playing a game, I want to feel like I'm actually in it as much as possible, which is easier when I'm actually given a face to identify with. I mean, playing as a faceless person doesn't provide me as much of a concrete image of the role I'm in... It feels like I'm not there >3>

RemnantDream wrote:I have another question about this. Would you rather there be a side image of the MC or have the MC be a sprite on screen?I didn't know if I should make a new thread for this since it's such a closely related topic..

I prefer both (dunno if that's possible though XD). But if I have to choose one, I guess I prefer the MC to have a sprite on screen. This is especially important for me if your game has dress up feature ^^

Definitely a side image. A sprite with the MC confuses me, and having neither is a bit... Plain and lacking in character? (One of the things that annoyed me the most in Tokimemo was that you couldn't see the heroine's face.)

On a side note, I thought it was rather confusing that in Yo-Jin-Bo they had the character sprites PLUS side images. Didn't know which one to look at.

I like side-image if it's not a crop and copy/paste of the original sprite being displayed above the textbox.

It helps put a face to the name super fast and increases recognition.

I think that we shouldn't compare ourselves so much to Japanese or commercial releases—it's high time for this community to make its own conventions and discuss our own. And I do like side-image in most Ren'Py releases! In fact, it's also a way to occasionally omit sprites and show off really nice backgrounds.

To be 100% honest, I like a side image, it's not necessary it's just when I'm reading the text I find it annoying to look up at the character's faces to see their expression but meh I'm just lazy -__- .

EVEN IF THE TENDONS OF MY THUMBS TEAR INTO NOTHINGNESS, EVEN IF I GO NEARSIGHTED FROM STARING TOO HARD AT THE SCREEN, EVEN IF MY BODY IS CLOSE TO COLLAPSE FROM THE 72 HOURS I HAVE GONE WITHOUT FOOD! I WILL DEFEAT YOU!

Depends on what kind of VN you're making. If it's a dating sim-ish game where 'you' are the character or it is heavily implied that you can see yourself as the MC. E.g. when the main character does have an appearance but not really a big personality and you make lots of choices/pursue things etc., then I wouldn't voice it.

Also on topic:

I'm not really sure which I prefer when it comes to third person limited point of view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_limited), but when it's first person point of view... seeing the character's face feels kind of weird :0? You see it from that character's pov, which doesn't include him/herself. I see CGs as the only exception to this.

Yeah, that seems to be a pretty common opinion. But I think that if done just right, voice acting could add an extra layer of emotion to a work. There are a lot of Japanese VNs in which that's the case (Ever17 where the voices add emotion that the sprites don't always have, FSN Realta Nua where the action is mostly implied by sound + a bunch of slashy-lines), and I think that there is potential for it in the OELVN world as well.

But I'm still only going to test it on the demo first just to see if people might hate it.

EVEN IF THE TENDONS OF MY THUMBS TEAR INTO NOTHINGNESS, EVEN IF I GO NEARSIGHTED FROM STARING TOO HARD AT THE SCREEN, EVEN IF MY BODY IS CLOSE TO COLLAPSE FROM THE 72 HOURS I HAVE GONE WITHOUT FOOD! I WILL DEFEAT YOU!